/
The sun was setting.
However, as the twilight spread and the sky darkened, the western sky suddenly brightened like never before. A massive flame rose, covering the entire valley that turned from the mountain ridge to the northeast. It was Flower Village.
Enrique glanced back with interest.
“It seems like it has started.”
Nate silently gazed at the sight. His eyes were fixed on the transparent souls rising and moving gracefully through the air above the blazing mountain.
Souls. They were souls rising up towards the fiery mountain, moving as if dancing in the sky.
Perhaps some of them were struggling in agonizing death, while others were resisting leaving behind the regrets of their lives. Yet, to those watching from afar, they all seemed to be dancing carefreely.
Soon, the two of them turned around and hastened their steps along the path.
When they approached the Asein Gate, a familiar coffin came into view.
Enrique subtly looked at Nate, but Nate calmly entered the coffin without a word. Even if it was a grave waiting for him, he would have gone inside because he was so exhausted he felt close to death.
Swoosh. As the lid closed, his consciousness immediately faded away.
By the time they arrived at the guild branch, it was already pitch dark outside.
Supporting Nate with a dazed mind, Enrique entered the building. Aslan and old Max were waiting anxiously with worried expressions. The color of their faces had turned paler than ever. Even Aslan had ran up to him and grabbed the hem of his robe and began to cry. Even the old man, with whom Nate hasn’t had much of a relationship, cared so much for him, whom he’s only known for a few days.
What a kind boy, Nate thought.
As they were sharing a touching moment, a loud laughter echoed from inside the lobby.
“Huhuhahaha! You’re a slow poke, have you finally arrived now?”
A tall and muscular man with well-developed muscles walked out of the lobby, laughing heartily. He was Justin Asteros, the guild’s powerhouse and one of the few Sword Masters in the continent.
“Kukuku, Your Majesty. I heard you had a hard time this time. Little Aslan says you’re a total…….”
The man was finding something amusing, laughing with a chuckle as he approached them. However, he suddenly stopped mid-sentence when Nate quietly extended his arms towards him.
The man’s eyes widened as he saw the blood-soaked bandages wrapped around Nate’s wrists. The previously lively atmosphere in the lobby cooled down instantly.
“Justin.” In a calm tone, Nate called his name.
The man flinched and trembled.
“If you play this prank one more time, I’ll impose a 30% tariff on all your goods in the future. Understand?”
“What?” Justin’s eyes opened wide. “30% tariff… Hey! That’s straight up robbery, isn’t it? Even Asein wouldn’t do such things! And why would you impose a tariff on what I import, huh?”
“You are importing, aren’t you? The latest fad from Brittany.”
“What….”
Justin’s jaw dropped.
Are fashion trends considered imports too? Huh? Well, that’s good! In return, I’ll raise the prices! I’ll raise them sharply! Do you know who our store’s most important customer is? It’s your wife!
The man, who had been grumbling for a while, soon took out his Aura Blade and cut off the handcuffs.
Clank, clank.
Watching the handcuffs fall neatly to the floor, Aslan let out a sigh of admiration. Wow.
The man, who seemed quite rough, was actually an incredibly skilled individual.
Nate, with his wrists finally freed after a few days, rotated them here and there. As Nate did so, Justin, who had been watching him closely, asked hesitantly,
“…Hey, are you okay?”
“…?”
‘This guy, and that guy, why are they acting like this today. If they were going to ask if I’m okay, shouldn’t they have refrained from playing tricks from the start?’
Before returning to Delcross, Nate received a brief report on the current situation of the Asein branch and the direction of handling this incident. Among them was the issue of the whereabouts of the two people he had rescued from the Flower Village.
Max, who has no family or ties, decided to live by helping with odd jobs in the guild.
He was beaming with the thought that he had finally escaped from the bandit group he had been tied to for half his life. He didn’t even seek his favorite alcohol, and it seemed that the cascade of holy power that poured in succession had suppressed even his alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
For Aslan, the range of choices was wider.
“This kid is talented. He’s flawless as an alchemist, and even has an extraordinary talent to awaken his aura alone.”
The child had been crawling in the bandit group since his childhood but was a rare child with a correct mind. The boy’s face shone with joy at Nate’s calm praise.
“Follow the child’s wishes and help as much as possible. It would be good to continue studying as an assistant to a famous alchemist, or to write a letter of introduction as a squire to a promising knight.”
But upon hearing that, the head of the Asein branch smiled quietly and made a strange gesture towards Aslan.
“Hmm, while waiting for you, I heard some interesting stories from this little one.”
Suspicious of what trick was going on, Nate glanced at Justin, and Aslan stepped forward with a tense face. The boy walked up to Nate and cautiously knelt on one knee and bowed his head. He seemed to be imitating what Enrique does, and although the bow was awkward, it was quite serious.
The boy who had given a bow made an appeal to Nate with a slightly trembling voice.
“Bart… no, Your Majesty the Holy Emperor. I wish to be one of Your Majesty’s person from now on.”
A sigh could be heard from Enrique at his side.
“Another naive individual……”
Whether or not there was a noise from the side, Aslan looked up at Nate and spoke earnestly.
“I’m going to build up my sword skills and go to Delcross. I’m going to take the imperial knight exam next year and become a knight of the royal guard protecting you, always serving you by your side. I will do my best to make it so.”
“……”
Nate was inwardly surprised by Aslan’s unexpected words. It hasn’t been a day since he’d escaped from the bandits group, but has alread making plans for his life too quickly. Besides, isn’t the process strangely specific?
Sure enough, there was someone who had stirred things up at his side.
“Hmm, I’ve promised to watch over his swordsmanship. The knight’s examination? This great Justin will make sure he passes it through easily!”
Ha ha ha ha! After a glance at the proud and confident branch head, Nate met the gaze of the boy looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
“Aslan, you’re still young. You don’t need to set everything in advance. Childhood is shorter than you think. There’s hardly enough time to try and enjoy things you’ve never done or enjoyed before, why don’t you spend some more time thinking carefully?”
However, Aslan shook his head.
“If it weren’t for Your Majesty, I would have surely lost my life to the hunting party today. My life now is as if it was given by Your Majesty. Then, isn’t it right that the rest of my life should be dedicated to you, Your Majesty?”
He had been crawling desperately in the bandits group alone since childhood. He barely adapted, then the punitive force attacked, and he even crossed the border of Flanders on his own. Although he lived hard, the days were extremely lonely for a young boy.
But in the past few days following Nate, Aslan was able to feel an unprecedented sense of stability. He was able to firmly believe, rely on, and follow someone even in the tense situation of chasing and being chased. The boy didn’t want to lose that newfound sense of stability and bonding again.
“Aslan.”
Nate opened his mouth to once again dissuade the boy.
But for a moment, the face of a grown young man overlapped with the face of the boy looking up at him. Nate immediately knew that it was Aslan in a few years.
The well-grown young man was wearing the uniform of the royal guard knights as he promised in his childhood, but it was torn and soaked with blood, presumably in the middle of a tough battle. Other royal guard knights who seemed to have cooled down around him could be seen.
He was standing with his sword pointed strenuously at the dark grey sky. He shouted loudly, staring at his unknown opponent.
—If I had known it would be like this, if that was the case, I would never……!
That scene disappeared very quickly. However, the tone of desperation in the young man’s shout made Nate ask the boy the same question again.
“…won’t you regret it?”
However, the boy’s eyes full of conviction were as upright as ever.
“Yes, there will never be such a thing.”
“……”
“…Is it not possible?”
What could he say in front of those desperate eyes?
“…I look forward to the day when Delcross greets another excellent royal guard knight.”
Nate could barely reply, clearing his choking throat.
***
Ripple, ripple.
Listening to the faint sound of water lapping, Nate opened his eyes. It was the small artificial pond in the heart of the imperial palace.
He hoisted himself from the pond’s surface and slowly walked out. His thoroughly soaked robes were clinging heavy, dragging his body down to the pond floor.
A middle-aged woman with a gentle face approached him, holding a clean blanket. She was the commander of the always reliable and faithful Saint Aurelion Knight Order.
“Your heart had stopped twice. Your Majesty.”
That seemed to be the reason her face looked a little pale. She must have been under a lot of stress for the past few days. Francis, who always worried terribly about his commander, would have something more to scold him about later.
“You’ve worked hard, Katrina.”
“Not at all. Did you find the prince?”
Before Nate could step out of the pond, he halted. He stared at the droplets falling from his hair and the hem of his clothes for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes, I found the child. He decided to live outside the empire as another Klanos.”
“…I see.”
Knowing the character of the Holy Emperor, she thought he would immediately bring the child back, but it seemed something did not go as smoothly as expected. As expected, Nate, standing still in his place, covered his face with one hand, sighing and making an unexpected remark.
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have hated Solomon, that bastard so much……”
Katrina gasped unadvertently. It was the first time the Emperor had mentioned the former Emperor first.
Solomon Klein. The 16th Emperor of Delcross, a cool-headed ruler who had tightly ensnared the theological academy and the council in political weaknesses.
A man who merely frowned, sipping his wine while his young son vomited blood in front of him.
As a child, Nate had thought of such things absentmindedly as he watched his predecessor celebrate. After all, he and his mother’s unhappiness stemmed from the man and if he could just kill him, wouldn’t everything be resolved?
But when he received the same gaze from his own child, memories of his childhood came back to him with new meanings.
Even though his own son seemed to obediently converse in the end, a faint hostility toward him was occasionally conveyed from Kaien. The child probably thought that it would be better to seize the opportunity, kill him, and completely escape rather than living under the surveillance of the continent’s greatest authority.
His own child hadn’t done so for one reason only; he hadn’t been able to find Nate’s opening.
Worst of all, during his conversation with Kaien, the eerie malice transmitted from the boy’s soul filled with black cracks was still vivid in his mind. The boy’s soul shed black tears and relentlessly spilled out curses at him.
—I curse you! I curse you! All my pain is because of you!
—I’m going to eat your soul! Tear it to shreds with a hook and eat it all up!
Kaien, who could hear other souls but couldn’t hear his own, would never realize his true feelings.
“Katrina, at first… I thought I would give the child freedom to speak.”
The thoughtful commander silently listened to his words.
“But now I can’t help but wonder. I’m afraid I might end up cutting the child with my own hands.”
Nate didn’t believe Kaien would always be docile, but he was not prepared to inscribe the spell of restraint, risking damaging the child’s soul.
Could the deteriorating soul of a child ever recover? What if it’s already beyond the tipping point and collapses? What should he do if it completely transforms into something wrong?
“I vowed never to raise my sword against my child again……”
Katrina looked at the droplets of water trickling down his chin for a moment, then quietly wrapped him in the blanket she had been holding.
“Your Majesty.”
“……”
“Even if such a thing happens, it will never happen.”
Her voice was filled with a gentle yet firm conviction.
“Your Majesty, you have given the prince what you wanted most.”
Even though she was saying something contrary to his premonition, her voice remained firm, making him want to believe her.
“…Yes.”
And that’s why he always wished to be a person like this knight commander for his children.